Niti Aayog’s hands-off approach

It was widely reported in the press that the CEO of Niti Aayog, addressing industrialists recently, had proposed that “schools, colleges, jails and infrastructure should be handed over” to the private sector. If this represents government’s views, this is a radically new policy approach, opening up many new possibilities and avenues for Indian governance to explore.

Surely, the Railways should be in the shortlist for ‘privatisation’. There will be plenty of new opportunities to lease/sell railway land for establishment of Walmart supermarkets in every district. More importantly, many ‘unviable’ and ‘unimportant’ rural stations and routes can then be closed down, without the government incurring political odium. Lakhs of Biharis travelling from say Delhi or Mumbai to Darbhanga, packed like cattle in the third class, would not make it for Chhath by rail, since the fares would be made ‘commercially’ viable — they could fly instead.

There are immense other possibilities. Public health can be outsourced to the private sector, possibly to be managed by Ketan Desai, supported by Fortis and Apollo; again there will be large scope for closing down most district and tehsil hospitals — and making other hospitals ‘viable’, by charging metropolitan prices — surely the concept of free medical care will become outdated, and ‘unfashionable’ in this new governance model. Likewise, why not abolish our municipal corporations, and hand over our potholes to a private company — this is already being done indirectly, why not formalise the arrangement? The downside is that our corporators will be out of jobs, and their incomes will be hit — this will be a serious loss.

Letting our imagination go farther, why not ‘professionalise’ our armed forces, abolish the Defence ministry, and hand over the armed forces to the private sector — surely a Milo Minderbinder will emerge to negotiate commercial deals with neighbouring countries, and keep our borders safe along with theirs — it could be argued that sovereignty is a very small price to pay for assured border security! If this would also entail dismantling our foreign ministry, so be it.

The Niti Aayog representative specifically referred to the education sector, recommending that the government should pull out of school education. The fact is that the primary education sector in India is rated as the ‘worst’ in the world — you heard it right, this was by PEW, an American thinktank, corroborated earlier by numerous other Indian and international studies. One recalls the inconvenient finding of a credible ASER report that there is no statistically significant difference in quality between schools of the private and public sector, after accounting for the difference in economic status of student intake. The examples of Canada and Australia are cited in this regard, to outsource school education — why not see the universal government education system of 30 other developed countries, including the US, Europe and Japan — Canada and Australia are exceptions. Besides, India is not to be compared, because 40 per cent live in poverty and 40 per cent more in abject poverty. Why not compare India with Canada in terms of air pollution, forest and wildlife conservation, electricity consumption, human development index, and free quality health care?

Indeed, higher education already is now practically entirely in the private sector. The quality of higher education in India is abysmal — 80 per cent of graduates cannot write a single coherent paragraph on any subject in any language, 85 per cent of engineering graduates are unemployable, medical education is in pathetic shape — one can go on. Clearly, there is no need for a change of management pattern here — particularly noting the fact that most higher education institutions are run by politicians, and this sector provides the maximum contribution to black money generation in the country, after political corruption. The status quo cannot obviously be disturbed. In any event, the MHRD will not be missed.

One consequence is that politicians will be out of job and income — they will oppose such changes. Since we are innovative, why not link them with the concerned private sector management enterprises, and give them ‘salaries’ — say Rs 3 crore a year for each MLA, Rs 10 crore for an MP and Rs 25 crore annually for each state minister — the chief minister’s remuneration will be negotiated — all of them will be ‘losers’, but why not ask them to make the sacrifice in national interest! In any case, no harm will take place if they don’t attend Parliament or state assembly.

The Prime Minister had spoken of ‘less government’; surely he meant ‘better governance’. Is the Niti Aayog’s brilliant mantra: ‘No governance’ and ‘No Government’?

One wonders if this is connected to the recent departure of NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya.

The author is a former cabinet secretary. Views expressed are personal.